Location
Innovation Campus, Mike Codd Building, 1st floor, Room 102
Start Date
6-8-2012 2:30 PM
End Date
6-8-2012 3:15 PM
Description
This paper examines issues around graduate professional engineers and their management skills, questioning whether they are adequate for the modern engineering workplace and goes on the consider the notion that for the majority of engineers, the development of managerial skills will be essential and cannot be 'picked up on the job'. Engineers increasingly need to understand the interactions between design, quality, sustainability, product planning, and organisation, management of people, team work and finance. This paper considers the need to develop managerial skills and will discuss the development of a survey to be carried out in an Australian context. The survey will cover a range of firms and governmental bodies which employ graduate engineers. The questions will cover a wide range of non-engineering skills which could be expected of engineers within the first five years from the commencement of their careers. The two disciplines, Engineering and Management have enjoyed a rather difficult relationship for some time. Each needs the other because complex engineering tasks cannot be carried out in an increasingly challenging business environment without an integrated management focus. Engineers are finding they need to take on more complex tasks which include very significant managerial issues. Most engineering faculties have attempted to teach managerial skills in their engineering curricula. However, management education has often been viewed as secondary to technical skills and hence does not encompass the integrated range of skills needed. This has not motivated students to become interested in and committed to the management aspects of their future profession with the result that management education for engineers remains an enigma. This paper considers some of the contemporary literature on teaching management to engineers. Some ideas are discussed outlining possible research which will be carried out and reported on by the authors, aimed at documenting current shortcomings with a view to developing a more effective future strategy for engineering management education.
Management Skills for Professionals - Are they Required? A Case Study on the Needs of Engineering Undergraduate Students
Innovation Campus, Mike Codd Building, 1st floor, Room 102
This paper examines issues around graduate professional engineers and their management skills, questioning whether they are adequate for the modern engineering workplace and goes on the consider the notion that for the majority of engineers, the development of managerial skills will be essential and cannot be 'picked up on the job'. Engineers increasingly need to understand the interactions between design, quality, sustainability, product planning, and organisation, management of people, team work and finance. This paper considers the need to develop managerial skills and will discuss the development of a survey to be carried out in an Australian context. The survey will cover a range of firms and governmental bodies which employ graduate engineers. The questions will cover a wide range of non-engineering skills which could be expected of engineers within the first five years from the commencement of their careers. The two disciplines, Engineering and Management have enjoyed a rather difficult relationship for some time. Each needs the other because complex engineering tasks cannot be carried out in an increasingly challenging business environment without an integrated management focus. Engineers are finding they need to take on more complex tasks which include very significant managerial issues. Most engineering faculties have attempted to teach managerial skills in their engineering curricula. However, management education has often been viewed as secondary to technical skills and hence does not encompass the integrated range of skills needed. This has not motivated students to become interested in and committed to the management aspects of their future profession with the result that management education for engineers remains an enigma. This paper considers some of the contemporary literature on teaching management to engineers. Some ideas are discussed outlining possible research which will be carried out and reported on by the authors, aimed at documenting current shortcomings with a view to developing a more effective future strategy for engineering management education.